Real Estate? Need help in Orange County CA

[OriginalWheelman]

So I'm looking around for places to live near Irvine, CA. The apartments I look at seem to go for $1,500 ish but houses can be rented for less than $1,000 ? I'm not really getting why the gap is so large. I seems the farther we get from the metrolink, and the closer we get to Tustin, the cheaper it gets, which makes sense. But I'm seeing ranges from $650 to $2200 for places only 10 miles apart. I understand the difference between a luxury apartment and a cheap one obviously, but I guess what I'm getting at is I'm missing some key info here. Are there areas I should avoid? We're trying to stay away from the more urban areas, but need to keep rent as cheap as possible. We're taking the Civic with us, so we n longer need to be close to the metrolink, but it could not hurt, as we're not sure where NXER will be working long term. She' setting up to take a 3 month contract near Irvine, but we have no idea where she will be after that. So... help?

[OriginalWheelman]

I think I realize what I was missing. Planned communities. We have VERY few of these in the north east.

[Zydeco]

the short story, the more in land you go the cheaper it gets. So Newport beach is going to cost you a bit more and tustin going to be cheaper. I don't know a whole lot about this area yet. but it seams to be pretty nice every you go.

[C-Kwik]

10 miles is pretty drastic around here. Some of the dirtiest parts of Santa Ana are withing 10 miles of me (I'm near the John Wayne Airport). Not sure if its still the case, but pockets of Tustin used to have a lot of asian gang activity. Newport Beach is also within 10 miles of me so I can easily see rent approaching $3K. Without seeing the listings for myself, I suspect, you are finding some of the cheaper home rentals in some of the areas, I would avoid.

I would hope you've checked out rental-living.com (the Irvine Company Website). They own most of the apartment communities in Irvine and you can narrow down to a list of places rather quickly using their apartment finder. They tend to me more of the luxury apartment design, so they can be a bit pricey, but they tend to come with plenty of amenities. I'm paying near $1850/month for mine, but I also have an attached garage and in-unit laundry. Plus we pay extra for our cat. I also wanted to be close enough to ride my bicycle to school so it narrowed my choices greatly.

One thing you'll want to consider or at least be aware of is that several freeways in the area are toll roads. Some properties can be a pain to get to from a non-toll freeway. Just a quick run-down, the 73 south of Bison is a toll-road. Though, properties accessed by this toll-road are usually pricey. The 261 north of the 5 freeway is a toll-road. And the 133 north of the 5 freeway is a toll-road. The entirety of the 241 is a toll-road as far as I know. I would hate for you to think you are scoring by being close to a freeway only to find out you have to pay to use it.

Might be helpful if you post some of the properties you like or want some more information on and we can try and tell you more about it.

[Dattebayo]

Did you consider utilities included/not included?

[nissangirl74]

There are lots of properties that don't have garages or driveways. Seeing the way people out there drive, it would make me extremely scared to park my car on the street. Also, what Dave said about utilities. Also, since the length of her employment is certain, look at a lease very carefully and see if you can get out of it if she is relocated.

[OriginalWheelman]

We will have to see where NXER ends up working. Currently, we're thinking the Tustin / Irvine area, and that's where she's been looking for work. That and places accessible by train, Downy, Anaheim, Orange. We were looking at Rental-Living, but like you said it's pricey. We were using the village at Irvine spectrum as our benchmark. We've been looking at Newport Beach near UC Irvine, as there seem to be some nice places there for reasonable prices. As for tolls, I'm from New York, I didn't know there were freeways WITHOUT tolls. But like I said, when she gets a job, we'll know exactly where we will be going,until then it's hard to pin down. Other than preferring to be close to the metrolink, we're pretty flexible.

[C-Kwik]

I'd avoid Downey altogether. I can't say I know a ton about it, but my buddy and his wife had 2 apartments there and between one smelling like piss in the halls and the other having s*** for parking on top of the sketchy neighborhoods I'd recommend against it.

I'm assuming you are looking at the areas of the cities you mention near the MetroLink stations. I think the areas are okay, but if pricing is similar, consider that if she works in Irvine and you live in Anaheim or Orange, she'll have to drive through some of the worst traffic in OC. Its not impossible, but worth consideration. You might look at Windwood Glen in Irvine. Looks to be fairly close to the Tustin MetroLink station. Single Bedroom units are a bit small, but 2 bedrooms can be had for about as much as a single at The Village.

If you're looking for places to consider outside of Irvine, Fullerton might be a neat choice. There is a station there and a ton to do. Not sure what rent is like there, but there are plenty of eateries and dive bars to go to in the downtown area.

[OriginalWheelman]

I'm realizing how poorly I worded that. We've been running on almost no sleep all week. We want to live in Irvine, she's looking at work in Irvine, Downy, Orange, Anaheim. The idea is she will commute by train and avoid the traffic all together. We're trying to stay out of the denser areas. Ideally, we'll be in East Irvine or farther. She's already used to an hour long commute, so even an hour train ride would be a step up, since she doesn't have to drive.

[Zydeco]

are there trains here? I know there are buses. but idk about trains.

[OriginalWheelman]

are there trains here? I know there are buses. but idk about trains.

http://www.metrolinktrains.com/